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18 D. G. RITCHIE : speak of our century as specially the century of progress in natural science. As mathematics gave a special colour or tone to the philosophical thinking of the seventeenth cen- tury, so biology seems to exercise the predominant intellec- tual influence in this century. And there is no doubt that the categories of " organism " and " evolution " now everywhere affect our language and make impossible to us many modes of thinking about human society which were customary and unquestioned a hundred years ago. But along with the pro- gress of biological science we must certainly take account also of the influence exercised by scientific history and the scientific criticism of documents. This influence has worked entirely in the same direction with the biological, and has contributed a great part of what " Evolution " in its largest sense means. To regard human nature as a constant factor in all times and places, to which varying circumstances have simply to be added on, or to believe the history of mankind to be a degeneration from a primitive state of perfection these are modes of thinking impossible to the educated man of our days. Yet they were an accepted part of the Weltan- schauung, or picture of the universe, which our grandfathers had before their mental eyes. What considers itself " ortho- dox " belief and what considers itself " free-thinking "- except among the most ignorant and backward have both taken on a different character from that which they had in last century or the earlier half of this. " The historical spirit " has penetrated even into the minds of journalists and popular preachers ; it has become almost a commonplace of these " sophists" of our day. And a great deal of the best scientific work which is now being done in the world is in the region of historical and anthropological investigation, in the endeavour to get a true understanding of the past of the human race. Of this historical spirit Hegel's philosophy was one of the earliest prominent expressions, and Hegel's philosophy has in course of time come to contribute greatly to its growth and diffusion. Hegel sometimes speaks as if the philosopher only summed up a completed stage of life and feeling ; but the truth in this does not justify the inference that the philo- sopher exercises no influence on his age. To give a philo- sophical expression to the new interest in history was to promote the passing of the historical spirit into the common possession of the educated world. It may, however, be objected that to recognise the import- ance of history and to study the problems of religion, law, politics and philosophy in an historical spirit is not the same